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1
Coyote Moon (2016)
Published
A mother coyote crosses a sleeping suburb in search of food for her pups. The library lawn looks different once you’re watching it for prey, as she is. This nighttime picture book gets its suspense from her work of feeding a family, and it lets young readers consider what a familiar human neighborhood offers a wild animal.
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The Den That Octopus Built
An octopus gathers shells, rocks, and even glass to build her den. Anne Hunter’s pictures make the den worth studying as a workspace where the octopus can hide and care for her eggs. This read-aloud follows the mother’s life all the way to its end, something to know if you’re choosing it for a sensitive listener.
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How to Find a Fox (2021)
Published
In Ossi Saarinen’s photos, a red fox sometimes fills the frame and sometimes blends into a wide autumn landscape. Move slowly through the picture book to see how much of a fox sighting depends on where you look. It’s an invitation to pay attention to a wild animal going about its day.
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Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting With the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands
Off the coast of San Francisco, great white sharks return to the Farallon Islands, where elephant seals are prey. The book puts the hunt beside the work of scientists who study the sharks, so an older picture-book reader can see how a predator’s body, food, and habitat fit together. The art shows predation directly.
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A Snowy Owl Story (2015)
Published
A snowy owl goes looking for food and turns up far from its usual Arctic surroundings. The story, based on real events, brings unusual southward owl movements within reach of a preschooler. Choose this board book when a young child is curious about why a wild visitor might show up somewhere unexpected.
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One Tiny Turtle (2001)
Published
A young loggerhead spends years swimming and feeding at sea before returning to the beach where she hatched to lay eggs. Follow her over those long distances, then notice how much action the pictures fit into one night on land. The read-aloud makes years of animal life graspable without having to bring a person into the story.
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The honeybee (2018)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
A year with one hive gives listeners time to follow the bees from flowers to honeycomb. The rhyme moves quickly and the pictures make the stages of gathering nectar and making honey easier to see. This is a lively read-aloud for a child who wants to know what the bees are busy doing.
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The Secret Life of the Little Brown Bat
A year with a little brown bat named Otis takes young readers through the work of hunting and finding a mate, as well as the danger from predators. Otis gives the story a thread to follow while the account stays close to what a little brown bat does. It’s a good read-aloud for a child who has only seen bats as shapes against the sky.
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A boy called Bat (2017)
8.7/10on Open Library
Published
Bat’s veterinarian mother brings home a baby skunk to care for until a wildlife shelter can take him. Bat wants the kit to stay and starts thinking seriously about what his care requires. The short chapters make the novel a good early step into longer stories, and the temporary arrangement gives readers a real question to sit with.
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Shiloh (1991)
8.6/10on Open Library
Published
When Marty hides a beagle from its owner, protecting the dog means keeping a secret that gets harder to keep. The novel takes the dog’s mistreatment seriously and gives readers a reason to ask what Marty can actually do about it. Choose it for a reader who wants a rescue story with a difficult decision at its center.
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Pax (2016)
9.4/10on Open Library
Published
Peter is made to leave his fox Pax behind as war approaches. As Peter sets out to find him, the novel follows Pax too, giving the fox a life of his own beyond the boy’s search. It’s a good choice for middle-grade readers ready for the uncertainty of what a return to the wild means for a fox raised by people.
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A Wolf Called Wander (2019)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
After a rival pack scatters his family, a young wolf named Swift must find food and territory in the Pacific Northwest. His journey is fiction inspired by the tracked wolf OR-7. For a middle-grade reader who wants an animal’s point of view, the struggle to travel through unfamiliar country gives the story its stakes.
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Odder (2022)
6.0/10on Open Library
Published
A young sea otter’s encounter with a shark leads into a story inspired by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s work pairing orphaned pups with surrogate mothers. This is the free-verse novel, with short passages that make it easy to pause and think about what an otter learns from another otter. There is a picture-book adaptation for younger readers.
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The One and Only Ivan (2011)
8.8/10on Open Library
Published
Ivan has lived behind glass in a shopping mall for years. When Ruby, a young elephant taken from the wild, arrives, he begins to think differently about what both animals need. Told in short sections from Ivan’s point of view, the novel gives young readers time to consider what a place built for spectators is like for the gorilla inside it.
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Song for a Whale (2019)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Iris, a deaf twelve-year-old who repairs radios, wants to make a recording for a whale whose call differs from other whales’ calls. The technical challenge of getting the sound to him matters as much as her determination. Read this middle-grade novel as fiction inspired by a real whale, with Iris trying to meet an animal on its own terms.
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Moonbird: A Year on the Wind With the Great Survivor B95
A banded red knot called B95 travels between Tierra del Fuego and the Canadian Arctic. Following one bird makes it easier to understand why feeding and resting places along the way matter to the whole route. The photographs and the work of the scientists tracking the birds make this a rich nonfiction choice for older independent readers.
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